Question about carbonation

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b33risGOOD

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Hey guys

I hope this hasnt been covered before, probably has. I bottle my beer is 1litre PET bottles. Now after two weeks the bottles get rock hard, because of all the gas.

My question is, why when I pour the beer it's usually very weakly carbonated, and almost NO head.

Maybe a month later it seems properly carbonated, but even then it has no real staying power.

I use dextrose to bottle and i do it properly. I measure it on a scale, appropriate to the style, dilute in water and rack the beer on top of it.
 
No definitly not, I use something i bought at the beer store and i dont even use it at full strength. I also rinse probably more then needed.
 
Well this beer is an APA. All extract, Golden light DME and 20% Wheat extract. 60 minute boil and I used norther brewer hops and Cascade.

Also it was a partial boil, I think that is all the details.
 
what size batches are you brewing and how much dextrose are you using to prime? Just to confirm, it's not a lack of head that is your problem but you are getting undercarbed beer? how long is it since they were bottled? Perhaps it could just be a lack of conditioning time, I find a lot of my beers can take 6 weeks easily before they are properly carbonated and have that nice head and fine bead going on.
 
Despite what instructions may say, just because the bottles may feel hard doesn't mean the co2 is actually locked into the beer yet. So it's not fully carbed.

There is one simple reason...it's too soon.

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer. Lower temperatures take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

Temp and gravity are the two factors that contribute to the time it takes to carb beer. But if a beer's not ready yet, or seems low carbed, and you added the right amount of sugar to it, then it's not stalled, it's just not time yet.

Everything you need to know about carbing and conditioning, can be found here Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning. With emphasis on the word, "patience." ;)

Read the above blog, and come back to the beer in a couple more weeks.

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

Also, you are using 1 liter bottles. The above time frame is for 12 ounce bottles, NOT 1 liter ones.

A larger volume sized bottle usually needs more time to carb AND condition. I have some pints, 22 oz bombers and other sizes that I often use, but since I enter contests I usually also do a sixer or two of standard 12 ouncers for entering. And inevitably the 12 ouncers are done at least a week faster than the larger bottles....some times two weeks ahead of time...

Also the rule of thumb is 3 weeks at 70 degrees for a normal grav 12 ounce bottle....to carb and condition....It takes longer for the yeasties to convert the larger volume in the bigger bottles to enough co2 in the headspace to be reabsorbed back into the solution...A ration I don't know how much...

Big Kahuna gives a good explanation here...
Simple. It's the ration of contact area just like in a keg. The c02 will need to pressurize the head space (Which takes LESS TIME) in a bigger bottle (More Yeast and sugar, roughly the same head space) but then it has to force that c02 into solution through the same contact area...thus it takes longer.

Just forget about them for a couple more weeks, and you will find that you should have plenty of carbonation and plenty of head.
 
Hey Rev

What a difference a few days made, sometimes im still such a newb. Cracked some beer this weekend and i was much better. Like night and day

Thanks so much for your post tho, I learned a lot and im sure it can be helpfull to others

BUMP
 

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